Posted on 01/14/2005 3:43:22 PM PST by BenLurkin
MOJAVE - "You ain't seen nothin' yet." With those words, aviation mastermind Burt Rutan promised more exciting spaceflight endeavors to come from his Mojave shop that birthed the first privately funded manned space program.
SpaceShipOne, the star-spangled craft which launched the infant space travel industry, is only the beginning, he said.
The technology behind that craft is the basis for Virgin Galactic, the space tourism venture announced last fall by Virgin Chairman Sir Richard Branson. Rutan and his Scaled Composites company are creating the larger spacecraft that will take passengers into suborbital space for approximately $200,000 each.
This and other new space projects are spurring growth for the company, both in terms of physical size and employment. In three to five years, the company is expected to grow 50 to 100%, Rutan said.
Without revealing details, Rutan predicted to continue his record of bringing at least one new vehicle to flight each year, a rate he has held since starting work in Mojave in 1974.
"You can guess that we're going to continue doing that," he said. "Stay tuned."
The spacecraft that started the new ventures into space will remain behind, however.
Rutan announced that SpaceShipOne's spaceflight days have ended. The craft will remain at Scaled Composites in Mojave for engineering tests and publicity opportunities for the next several months before heading east to be permanently displayed in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington.
The program's financial backer, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, did not want to risk any damage to the vehicle before it takes up permanent residence at the Smithsonian, where others can see in person the artifact that started a new industry, Rutan said.
Although the details have yet to be finalized, tentative plans call for the spacecraft to be flown beneath the White Knight carrier airplane to the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual fly-in in Oshkosh, Wis., this summer.
From there, it will proceed to Washington and the Smithsonian Institution.
Rutan already has one creation hanging in that museum: the Voyager aircraft, which traveled around the world on a single tank of fuel in 1986, with Rutan's brother Dick and Jeanna Yeager at the controls.
Unlike the Voyager, which hangs above the information desk, SpaceShipOne will take its place inside the Milestones of Flight Gallery along with other landmark aircraft such as the Wright Flyer and the Spirit of St. Louis.
To preserve the spacecraft's memory locally, Scaled Composites and the X Prize Foundation will build a full-scale model of SpaceShipOne, using the original tooling.
Rutan hopes to hang a model in the new terminal at Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield. The airport had previously requested an example of Rutan's work for the terminal.
Burt Rutan has been one of my heroes since he designed the VariEZ and changed the face of general aviation with tons of canard designs.
I got to go to the new Air & Space center at Dulles Airport a few months back, it is amazing. They have the first production 707, a Concorde, the only remaining Stratocruiser, the Enterprise drop test space shuttle, a SR71, and lots more, and, most importantly they have tons of stuff coming. Constellation, DC 6 among other goodies!
That will be a good excuse for a fresh visit to the Smithsonian. I went to the Air Force Museum in Dayton last spring.
Bump.
I talked to Burt at the Rose Parade on 1/1. Exciting!
OK, last time I was at NASM the main cube, the one with Milestones of Flight, was stripped of all it's exhibits to deal with a leak (can you imagine the scream when I saw the yellow tape?!!!!!) but the time before that the Voyager was upstairs in the same structure. OK, OK, it was across the "bridge" upstairs gallery from the "Milestones of Flight," but it was part of the same cubical structure.
That part of NASM is what I call "ground zero." Apollo 11 Command Module, Wright Flyer, Glenn's Mercury capsule, Yeager's Bell X1, an X15, a Moon rock you can touch, a backup Viking Lander, etc. Of course SpaceShip One will go there, but Voyager is definitely part of that same exhibit. You stand in the middle of the other craft and look up and across the walkway and there it is (or was).
Have they rearranged this building?
I got to know Jesco Von Putkamer (online) around the time he retired in the late 80s (long story, you probably don't want to hear it) who was NASA's admin of all missions that left Earth orbit (after Apollo). He once told me that the proudest he ever was in his NASA career was when he saved the backup Skylab from being sold for junk so that it could be displayed in NASM. Neat guy. One of the last associated with Von Braun's Rakete Männer.
I LOVE this stuff!!!!!!!!!
OK, I remember when Branson and some other guy were in competition to circuit the globe in a balloon.
They were later in an attempt together.
Then they parted ways and the other guy actually made the circuit of the globe in a balloon.
What was his name and what has happened to him?
Cool!
I am sooooooooooooo jealous!
Ping
After all, they were spot-on concerning the impossibility of the success of SpaceShipOne.....
(God I wish I could find that thread.)
Steve Fossett.
He's going to flying the next round-the-world-without-refueling flight...solo...in a Rutan craft...financed by Branson/Virgin.
http://www.fossettchallenge.com/html/main_pages/Aviation.html
Please add me to your ping list if I'm not already on it, thanks!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.